12.15pm Strictly Come Dancing presenters and judges’ pay compared below (note that Claudia Winkleman also hosts a show on BBC Radio 2).

Claudia Winkleman: £450,000-£499,999

Tess Daly: £350,000-£399,999

Len Goodman: £200,000-£249,999

Bruno Tonioli: £200,000-£249,999

Darcey Bussell: £150,000-£199,999

Craig Revel-Horwood: £150,000-£199,999

12.10pm Just to underline the point, this list ONLY includes stars paid directly by the BBC (ie from the licence fee). Shows like Top Gear are supported by commercial organisation BBC Worldwide, and so Matt LeBlanc’s pay for example will be partially funded by them. Pay from independent production companies and other broadcasters are not included – so Lineker’s pay does not include his contract with BT Sport.

Here’s the key wording from the BBC: “These figures exclude amounts from: commercial investments into programmes; any payments made by our commercial entities, such as BBC Worldwide; payments made by independent producers; royalties; and repeat fees. Expenses are also excluded.”

12pm More notable absentees: Woman’s Hour presenters Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey are not included in the list of stars earning over £150,000.

11.45am Today presenters John Humphrys, Mishal Husain, Nick Robinson and Justin Webb are all included in the list of stars earning over £150,000 – however, their colleague Sarah Montague is not.BBC director-general Tony Hall has said that it would be “wrong” to say the lowest paid broadcaster on Today is a woman. RadioTimes.com understands that this is only the case if you look specifically at their salaries for presenting the Today programme; the published list only includes total pay packages. So, for example, Humphrys also presents Mastermind, while Husain also works as a BBC TV newsreader.

11.12am If you’re looking for how much drama stars are paid, prepare to be disappointed. Stars such as Poldark’s Aidan Turner are not employed directly by the BBC, and are instead paid by independent production companies.

11.10am: There are 96 names on the list in total earning more than £150,000. See the full list below.

He also revealed he had turned down higher offers from privately owned broadcasters in order to continue working with the BBC. The presenter also currently works with BT Sport mid-week on their Champions League coverage, and has also presented for broadcaster Al Jazeera.

The BBC has already admitted that a disparity between male and female BBC employees will emerge when the figures are finally released.

Director general Tony Hall has apologised to staff for the fact that the figures will show that two thirds of the BBC’s top earners are men.

“At the moment, of the talent earning over £150,000, two-thirds are men and one-third are women. Is that where we want to be? No. Are we pushing further and faster than any other major broadcaster? Most certainly,” Hall reportedly said in an internal staff video.

He added: “We need to employ the very best. They help make the BBC what it is. That’s the business we’re in. And of course, we’re in a market that is now even more competitive than ever. A decade ago it might have been just ITV or Sky or commercial radio. But now it’s Netflix, Amazon or Apple.

“But of course we all appreciate that we are dealing with the public’s money. We’re talking about what, to lots of people, are large sums. This is not something we can take lightly. That’s why we always try to pay people at a discount to the market. It’s why the bill for top talent is down by 10% year on year – down by a quarter over the last five years. And the amount we pay the very highest earners has dropped by 40% over the same period.

“We’re not afraid to walk away if money becomes an issue. That’s one of the reasons we’re the biggest investor in new British talent there is.”

The director general told the Today programme on Wednesday morning that the figures will show that 96 people earn £150,000 or more – down from 109 from last year’s annual report when the pay figures were not released.

The salaries will be published in £50,000 bands, with the 96 earners taking home a total of £29m last year, Hall confirmed, a reduction of just under £2m from the previous year.

One particular area of possible scrutiny is believed to be news presenting where the roster includes an array of big names stars such as newsreaders Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce and political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

It has been reported that Kuenssberrg earns between £300,000 and £350,000 with Graham Norton believed to top the overall list at around the £2.5m mark.

The BBC has not commented on the figures ahead of publication but denied the suggestions about the gender pay gap.

“We don’t recognise this story and people should wait and see what the data actually says rather than relying on uninformed gossip – people might be surprised,” a senior source told RadioTimes.com last week.

The source added that “the BBC has a good record compared with others” when it comes to pay equality.

The BBC has had nearly a year to prepare the information having been notified last September by culture secretary Karen Bradley that it must make public the salaries of its on-air talent who earn more than £150,000.

The new stipulation for on-air talent is believed to encompass more than 100 of its best-known names. In all, 109 TV and radio presenters earned more than £150,000 according to the last BBC annual report.

The good news for the BBC is that the potential embarrassment of the pay figures will only last one year.

Salaries for star news presenters and journalists will be capped following a review of pay in news.

The Corporation has also reportedly been moving BBC presenters on to the accounts of its production arm BBC Studios.

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This means that the earnings paid out by BBC Studios is to be private after it was launched as a commercial business earlier this year. However the move will have no impact on Radio and News presenters so those salaries will continue to be disclosed year on year.